‘The tragic heroes tragedy is one of many small
tragediesʼ
‘The tragic heroes tragedy is one of many small tragediesʼ
Death of a Salesman and Tess of DʼUrbervilles
Princeʼs death resulting in a chain of events.
From when the play begins small tragedies begin building up.
Linda being unable to cry because of the build-up of all of the small tragedies. Willyʼs life
just being a bundle of small tragedies.
Tessʼs rejection by Angel being the big tragedy. Nothing appears to emotional destroy
Tess in the same way.
In Aristotleʼs Poetics, Aristotle stated that the tragic hero must have a turning point known as a
peripetia which marks the main tragic event of their lives resulting in their cathartic tragic
ending. This suggests that tragedies must consist of a singular large tragedy instead of many
smaller numerous ones. In ‘Death of a Salesmanʼ and ‘Tess of DʼUrbervillesʼ I will therefore
argue the opposition to what extent ‘the tragic heroes tragedy is one of many small tragediesʼ.
In Tess of DʼUrbervilles, Hardy uses fate and determinist ideology to continuously create
tension between the events which are occurring in the novel and the ease and which they could
have been prevented. This aspect of a tragedy occurring when the tragedy did not have to is
something which causes the consequences of the actions which have occurred to be weighed
much more intently by audiences. As Tess and her brother Abraham talk of living on a “blighted
star” and Tess then falls asleep thinking about her parents feckless actions and whether their
new ‘DʼUrbervilleʼ title would mean anything is then shattered by the fast paced and immediate
death of Prince in which Tess became splattered from “face to skirt in crimson droplets”. This a
small tragedy in the novel, but one which is deeply weighted with the descriptions of Princeʼs
bleeding body using immense scientific language to depict the pool of blood which had
assumed the “iridescence of coagulation”. It becomes clear to the reader upon reflection or
reread of the novel that without this event Tess would not have regarded herself as a
“murderess” in which she decided to go to Trantridge to claim kin so that he families financial
hardships would be lessened. Without the small tragedy occurring, she would not have met the
serpent in her garden – Alec DʼUrberville and therefore would not have been seduced/assaulted
with the “Sorrow” being forced within her. It is therefore the small tragedy which result in a
chain of events with the bigger tragedy – Tessʼs rape which haunts her for the rest of the novel.
‘Death of a Salesmanʼ however lacks a major tragic event. It can be seen as being Willyʼs death
(the death of the tragic hero), or maybe Biffʼs arrival in Boston where he discovers that Willy is a
‘phoney”, however some critics even state that there is no tragic event. The tragedy of the
Loman family is that the characters are so immobilised and caught within the trap of the
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